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Published: 2005-02-01 09:04:46 +0000 UTC; Views: 5759; Favourites: 41; Downloads: 573
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Okay. So you've written something. Part of a story perhaps, or a description. A prologue or a novel chapter. You want to post it as a deviation on dA.Fair enough.
You want comments? You want people to take your writing seriously?
Show us you take your writing seriously then.
1. Proofing and Polishing.
If you apply for a job and your CV is full of typos, spelling mistakes and poorly worded sentences, you won't get the job. Your application will go in the bin.
Most people on dA don't know you. If they randomly find your work and it looks like you dashed it off, wrote it between lessons, and submitted it just as it is, most people won't bother to read much beyond their discovery of the first typo.
And why should they? You obviously don't care enough to spend a bit of time polishing your work, so why should anyone waste their time reading it? Really?
No one cares about how on-the-spur-of-the-moment your writing was done. Saying "I wrote this at 3am" or "I was high" doesn't excuse you at all. It takes very little time to use a spell-checker, and there are grammar-checkers for those who need them.
If you have a valid reason for uploading shoddy work, tell us (see point 2). Bottom line: if you're lazy and can't be bothered, don't expect anyone to take you seriously, or spend time giving you a well-thought-out critique.
2. Artist's comments.
When you submit a deviation, you get a nifty little box where you can tell us about your creation before we read it.
Use it.
If you struggle with grammar and sentence structure and want some pointers then say so. That helps, and you're less ikely to be ignored. If you're trying to make a point by using l33t, typos and other errors and so on, it helps to let people know (unless you're sure they'll pick it up from the context).
If your work is a first draft and you only want opinions on content, not grammar, tell us! (although even a first draft should be edited if it's not going in your scraps – it shows commitment, and how much you value your work)
If you want specific feedback on certain elements – style, narrative, dialogue, emotional content, reader reaction… it helps if you request such things directly.
3. Editing
Editing seems to be the bane of most people's writing life. That's understandable. Everyone has their own writing process, and just getting words on paper can often be a big enough task. Having to then edit your work can be a daunting additional necessity.
But it is a necessity.
I'm going to be brief here, because even a quick, general edit is better than none. Basically, before you submit a deviation, read it at least once as if you were going to critique it. After all, if you're thinking of asking someone else to do it, you, as the author, should have a go first.
Check for obvious mistakes like typos and spelling errors. Concentrate on little things, like making sure when you say "your" you don't mean "you are" (you're), and so on.
Look at the words you've used. Have you used any clichés? They're fine in dialogue, but generally not in narration. Have you said what you meant to say? Are there long sentences or paragraphs that you can shorten – perhaps by using more appropriate words? Have you said the same thing twice? Do you need to?
There are many other things to consider – point of view, characterisation, plot, tone, tense, dialogue, narrative voice, description and so on. Some of these are decisions you should make within the writing process, rather than when editing, and I don't mean to get complex here. All I'm trying to do is to convince you to take pride in your written work.
4. Submit Art
The point is a simple one, but I'll make it again. When people who don't know you look at your writing they judge your writing on what they see. They don't judge you because they don't know you, which is why making excuses for a piece of bad writing never works.
Writing is as much an art form as painting or photography. Anyone with a camera can take a picture and submit it, but there is a world of difference between a snapshot of your cat and an artistic photograph of a cat. In the same way, anyone who has a computer can type anything they like and submit it. But there is a world of difference between writing about your feelings because you're sad, for example, and creating a well-crafted piece of sad poetry or prose.
By all means grab a paintbrush and paint. But if you want to be an artist, learn about painting: different media, paper, tools, colours, styles. The more you know, the more you can create your own style and technique.
It's exactly the same with writing.
Happy editing!
MinorKey
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Comments: 67
edzull In reply to ??? [2005-04-16 23:28:21 +0000 UTC]
Yes!
Oh, how I love to edit... and how I hate to write...
Call me a masochist...
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pdRydia [2005-02-03 04:02:31 +0000 UTC]
[nodding emoticon] Ah, bless. Nice little piece here.
Step three is difficult, sometimes, depending on how much editing I've done while writing the story. Sometimes, by the time I finish, I know the story so well that when I go through it for a more thorough edit, I read right over mistakes as if they aren't there. Hence, why I look for others for help.
Not an excuse, so much as rambling. Or maybe hoping someone else might have had a similar experience--I feel so alone! *dramatic pose*
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MinorKey In reply to pdRydia [2005-02-06 07:01:39 +0000 UTC]
Sometimes, by the time I finish, I know the story so well that when I go through it for a more thorough edit, I read right over mistakes as if they aren't there.
that's a fair point, and this piece isn't aimed at you . I do the same, and I've just noticed a typo in this piece - no idea how it got there either, as it would have shown up on the spell-checker (sigh).
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MinorKey In reply to jl [2005-02-09 11:30:21 +0000 UTC]
I know I know
can't figure out that one, since I had the spell checker on at the time... weird.
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pdRydia In reply to MinorKey [2005-02-06 22:14:55 +0000 UTC]
Oh, I didn't take it to be aimed at me. :þ But so I see, it does happen to others.
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darkcrescendo [2005-02-02 03:33:09 +0000 UTC]
Step 3 is my balking point.
I'll deal with it when I actually get off my lazy donkey and decide to get into the prose shindig for real.
A good article.
Benedictions!
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Shelagnoa [2005-02-01 21:42:01 +0000 UTC]
Exactly! EXACTLY!!!! Couldn't have said it better. Thanks *MinorKey !! I hope people who will potentially send in their prose for critique read this and obey.
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white-rose-withering [2005-02-01 18:26:16 +0000 UTC]
I agree with you a lot because you mentioned many mistakes I do (especially the laziness). I feel I just begin "my writer's life". There is the only way how to improve your writing - practice, editing and lots of perspiration It's not easy but the results are worth it. Thank you for all the advices, I will fave it for sure.
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deadcow7 [2005-02-01 16:21:51 +0000 UTC]
hehe, well written and to the point -- do you mind me linking to this from time to time (that would save a lot of work )?
I've always been surprised by how differently prose and poetry is treated here at DA when compared to the visual pieces of...work. It seems to me that it's generally okay to critique a picture of something and be truthful about what your reactions are while critiquing writing is always taken as a direct attack on the person who wrote it. Maybe that's because writing is more personal -- and that's really what's so unique about it. But this fact doesn't justify submitting something to DA which you haven't really spent a lot of thought on -- after all, if you haven't done that, then how could your writing ever be personal and really refelct the complex being you are?
...Ok, sorry, kind of got carried away there. What I wanted to say was also thanks for point 4. It seems like a lot of people don't realize this and it should be said more often...
DeadCow
PS: yes, on good one on the "and you're less ikely to be ignored" .
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MinorKey In reply to deadcow7 [2005-02-02 00:13:55 +0000 UTC]
feel free to link to it - s'why it's not on my personal page.
Some people do write for no other reason than to express an opinion or share a feeling. Unfortunately, they don't always tell us that's what they're doing. In those cases, they aren't trying to become good writers, and attacking what they've written will seem personal to them.
People can, of course, choose to write like that, just as many choose to upload snapshots of their pets. This ismore for those who actually want people to take their writing (rather than them) seriously.
perhaps I should clarify that in my post. hm.
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crazylady [2005-02-01 12:36:56 +0000 UTC]
Interesting perspective. S'pose I have to agree...except that I AM one of the lazy bastards that posts without editing. Fortunately, my bad reading habit that I've had since childhood protects me from all but the rarest and most unavoidable of spelling mistakes. But I shouldn't say things like that, lest someone actually goes and looks at my stuff and comes away saying 'oh my gosh, I can tell that she never edits...'
Anyway, if I actually ever start posting my work that I am serious about and take pride in, I shall keep this in mind... Ta, *wecritique.
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DryBonesReborn In reply to crazylady [2006-03-26 22:15:18 +0000 UTC]
LOL. I try to edit and save what I have edited but when the hardrive goes you forgot that you corrected mistakes-that will never be fixed only due to the fact the hardrive has no MEMORY you even corrected them. Don't you hate that? You work so hard to correct something and either the disk doesn't save your corrections, or the harddrive never saved them.
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MinorKey In reply to crazylady [2005-02-02 00:03:03 +0000 UTC]
if you post without even looking for typos, shame on you!
seriously though, some people have less need to edit for the basic things, such as spelling. And there are always exceptions - personal diaries, and nanowrimo would come under my list of exceptions
Though of course, if you were ever seriously considering making a nano write worthy of publishing, editing would be a requirement...
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crazylady In reply to MinorKey [2005-02-02 02:13:06 +0000 UTC]
Ugh, don't remind me. I started to edit my NaNovel last month...and was almost in tears by the end of the first chapter...hence the reason I stopped posting it after seven chapters. But one day, maybe, if I can at least get it critique-worthy, it will make its debut here. Or somewhere. (Probably not on the NY Times Bestseller list...)
...as for typos, isn't that the reason man invented the spellchecker? *is genuinely puzzled* No, where I fall down is my tendency to post without stopping to think whether the actual concept behind my story is going to work. (Most of mine don't. Original, yes, workable, never.) Nyeheheh. *raises a glass* Here's to self-editing.
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